Phoenix Brewery employee list (1943)

Syd Thompsett has kindly donated to the WLHS an original of an employee list of the Phoenix Brewery in 1943 (i.e. during WW2). It shows 110 employees (in 1981 when Whitbread announced the closure of the brewery a loss of 46 jobs was anticipated. ).

The list is organised by age of the employee (the youngest at 14 being a fitters mate; the eldest at 71 being a "horseman").

The age breakdown is as follows: aged 20 years and under, 19 employees

aged 21 to 30 years, 14

aged 31 to 40 years, 22

aged 41 to 50 years , 33

aged 51 to 60years, 16

aged 61 to 70years, 5

aged 71 1

of the 110 employees only 31 appear to be women, despite the fact that this is in the middle of WW2.

Some indication of job function is given with "lorry driver" and "lorry mate" being the classification given to 35 employees (with some others in what appear to be distribution roles). The bottled beer stores employed 22. The maltings 12 employees. The cellars 9.